All limber and ready to save the day: 10 Questions with Aaron Rosa the voice of GAWTMY

It was just about 9 months ago when i first came across Girls Are Waiting to Meet You at the French Cultural Center in Beijing (read it here) . A lot has happened since then: The band survived the GAWTMY curse long enough to release an album and play a few gigs then lead singer Natan Doran and Human music box Luke Tweedy moved back to England. Fast forward a few months, we got a new lineup and they’re itching to show you what they can do. I had a chance to catch up with Aaron Rosa, the new voice of GAWTMY, the get the skinny on it all

Aaron's first show as GAWTMY vocalist... yes, that's a cheat sheet

1- Whats going on in your world? This is your chance to plug your stuff:GAWTMY‘s world is finally getting back on track, and climbing out of our collective cave. We’ve got about 5 new song concepts that we’ve been banging on since november, and we are hoping to get them gleaming for a mid summer EP release.

2- Where’s GAWTMY been hiding, you guys haven’t played in a little while?
We’re a little like voltron. We all live in or around the glorious castle of ‘Beijing Rock City’… but we park our big cats all over the place. Now that the cold is gone, and spring is once again the prevalent season of the land … it’s time to stretch… then when the mid-summer crisis comes we’ll be all limber and ready to save the day once more.

3-You got 2 shows under your belt now as lead singer of the band. How did you come to this role & how are you settling in it so far?

The mantle was handed to me by Natan Doron, GAWTMY’s frontman and co-founder, before he went back to London. I had been helping out with the band, doing some web-work for them, and lending some recording equipment for the album. Then when Natan and Luke announced that they’d be leaving, and at the next practice I said that if the band agreed, I would be happy to learn the songs and rock out with them…Next thing, September had come and I was singing out with GAWTMY as the duo bid Beijing farewell….

I gotta say that more or less the new make up of the band has been sorting itself out ever since. It isn’t just me settling in, but a whole new band arrangement really. We had to replace 3 key members of GAWTMYs sound, and no less than 6 instruments so it has taken sometime to adjust. However, I’d say now that our drummer is finally back in town, we’re ready to to start rolling again…

4- I heard that there was some new material being toyed with, who is doing the writing at this point?

We’ve got no less than 5 concepts for new songs, and more are rolling in all the time. Two of the songs were written by our new guitar player, Dave Muskett. Like lots of GAWTMY songs though, the songs have really come into their own after lots of creative work by each member of the band. I’ve written down a song or two, and we’ve still got natan sending us ideas, and lyrics on occasion.
If anything I’d say that the writing is still being done in GAWTMY fashion: parts of ideas brought together in the studio and pounded, grafted, sanded and smoothed into music. It might not be a pretty process to witness, but we hope the end product is listenable.

5- What can we expect at the gig on saturday? Any surprises?
Well…yes.

7- Just to keep track, how many are you now in GAWTMY? do you guys plan on expanding?

GAWTMY stands now at 7, and we are never really sure about what the next wave of migration is going to bring… I’d say our number reflects some grander schema of gauging weather patterns agains the star alignment… but that’d just be bullshit.

Zombie Girl video, directed by Andy Deemer

8- Seems to me like Beijing’s music scene has exploded over the past few years with veterans and new comers and It’s getting harder to keep track of the bands/shows now; Any particular gems people should be aware of in your opinion? Some bands or singers that pretty darn good but can’t seem to get recognition?

I’ve always been stoked to hear alt.senior play, but that’s mainly because i think they play a tight show. To be honest its hard enough to keep up with GAWTMY’s musical expedition, but i’ve heard good things about the Afro Beat Band, and another band called the Redbucks.

Kirsten, Michelle, and myself are pretty stoked that mademoiselle is going to play this Saturday’s gig with us. I’ve seen em get down a couple times and its just a good fun show that they do.

9- You look like someone with a decent appetite and we love to eat over here. Any good Beijing Gems you care to share as far as Chinese food goes?

Sorry i just survive on coffee, smokes, and junkfood…someday i might have to reintegrate with the rest of the fattening world…

10 – What are you listening to these days?

last time we filled up the playlist :

Latyrx (self titled album)
Okkerville River Band
Arcade Fire
Olafur Arnalds (coming to the jing April 4th)
Ween
Charles Bukowski (spoken word)
and a little 8-bit minimal so i can feel like i live in a nintendo (original, not that Wii shit), from time to time.
Soundtrack for American Graffiti (tons of great licks on that sdtk.)
Flaming Lips ( Yoshimi)
Modest Mouse, and Mouse from Mars (squeeky)…
Iron and Wine
Sufjan Stevens
The National
Decemberists
Lucero

Thanks to Aaron for taking the time and answering the questions… also, a huge thanks for a whole slew of new bands that i have never heard of that is keeping me busy!
Saturday will be one hell of a show as both GAWTMY and Mademoiselle can put on one hell of a show…

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Ganbei!!!!